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Manfred Honeck, PSO Music Director Photo Credit: Felix Broede |
In honor of the holiday season, Music Director
Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra present a one-night-only
performance of Handel’s glorious Messiah on Saturday, December 5 at 8 p.m. at
Heinz Hall.
George Frideric Handel’s much adored oratorio was a
modest success at the time of its debut in Dublin, Ireland, in 1742, but it
steadily gained in popularity, eventually becoming one of the best-known and
most frequently performed choral works in Western music. Honeck welcomes
featured guest vocal soloists Christina Landshamer, soprano; Robin Blaze,
counter-tenor; Paul Appleby, tenor; and Paul Armin Edelmann, bass, as well as
the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh to present this work in the acoustically
stunning Heinz Hall. A religious story of hope, inspiration and timeless
expression, this masterpiece is celebrated worldwide in performances throughout
December.
"To present Messiah during the holiday season
is always a true highlight,” said Honeck. “For me, this is a perfect piece with
the most beautiful and uplifting music to celebrate the holiday season. I am so
happy that we continue the tradition of performing Messiah, this beloved music
by Handel, here in Pittsburgh.”
Program notes for the weekend are available online
at pittsburghsymphony.org/messiah and on the PSO mobile app the day of the
concert.
The concert begins at 8 p.m. Tickets, ranging in
price from $27 to $94, can be purchased by calling the Heinz Hall box office at
412-392-4900 or visiting pittsburghsymphony.org/messiah.
About the Artists
Manfred Honeck has served as music director of the
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra since the 2008-2009 season. Together with the
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Honeck’s widely celebrated performances and
distinctive interpretations continue to receive international recognition. To
great acclaim, Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra regularly perform
in major music capitals and festivals, among them the BBC Proms, Musikfest
Berlin, Lucerne Festival, Rheingau Musik Festival, Beethovenfest Bonn,
Grafenegg Festival, Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. Honeck and the Pittsburgh
Symphony Orchestra have also built a close relationship with the Musikverein in
Vienna. Following a week-long residency in 2012, they will return once again
for three performances in the course of an extensive tour of Europe in spring
2016.
Honeck's
successful work with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has been extensively
documented on recordings with the Reference and Exton labels. The first SACD
released by Reference Records of Strauss tone poems, drew rave reviews. The
second recording, of Dvořák's Symphony No. 8 and the Symphonic Suite from
Janáček's opera Jenůfa, conceptualized by Honeck himself, was nominated for a
Grammy Award. Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4 was released in February 2015 to
critical acclaim and Beethoven 5 & 7 was released on November 13, 2015.
Several recordings, among them Mahler's Symphony No. 4, which won a 2012
International Classical Music Award, are also available on the Japanese label
Exton.
Born in
Austria, Honeck received his musical training at the Academy of Music in
Vienna. Many years of experience as a member of the Vienna Philharmonic and the
Vienna State Opera Orchestra and at the helm of the Vienna Jeunesse Orchestra
have given his conducting a distinctive stamp. Honeck began his career as
assistant to Claudio Abbado in Vienna. Subsequently, he was engaged by the
Zurich Opera House, where he was bestowed the prestigious European Conductor’s Award
in 1993. Honeck was one of three main conductors of the MDR Symphony Orchestra
in Leipzig and in Oslo, he assumed the post of music director at the Norwegian
National Opera and was engaged as principal guest conductor of the Oslo
Philharmonic Orchestra. From 2000 to 2006, he was music director of the Swedish
Radio Symphony Orchestra in Stockholm and, from 2008 to 2011, principal guest
conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, a position he resumed for
another three years at the beginning of the 2013-2014 season.
From 2007
to 2011, Honeck was music director of the Staatsoper Stuttgart where he
conducted premieres including Berlioz's Les Troyens, Mozart's Idomeneo, Verdi's
Aida, Richard Strauss's Rosenkavalier, Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites and
Wagner's Lohengrin and Parsifal, as well as numerous symphonic concerts. His
operatic guest appearances include Semperoper Dresden, Komische Oper Berlin,
Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, Royal Opera of Copenhagen, the White Nights
Festival in St. Petersburg and the Salzburg Festival.
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Christina Landshamer Photo Credit: Marco Borggreve |
Christina
Landshamer was born in Munich and initially went to the Academy of Music and
Performing Arts in the city, where she studied under Angelica Vogel, following
which she studied in Konrad Richter’s singing classes and in Dunja Vejzović
solo classes at the State University for Music and Performing Arts in
Stuttgart.
Following
initial guest performances at the Stuttgart State Opera, she sang at the Opéra
du Rhin in Strasburg under Marc Albrecht (Fidelio/Marzelline) as well as at the
Komische Oper in Berlin (Susanna). In 2009, “the triumphant and virtuoso
Christina Landshamer” had her very successful debut at the Theater an der Wien
in Vienna as Clarice in Haydn’s Il mondo della luna under Nikolaus Harnoncourt.
This was followed by performances at the Paris Théâtre du Châtelet (with a
stage version of the Messiah) and at the Salzburg Festival in Frau ohne
Schatten (Hüter der Schwelle – stage direction: Christof Loy) under Christian
Thielemann in 2011.
She
performed at the Salzburg Festival again the following year as Frasquita in
Carmen, this time under Sir Simon Rattle with the Berlin Philharmonic. Also in
2012, she had her debut at the Baden-Baden Festival, again under Christian
Thielemann (Ariadne auf Naxos, Najade). Later that year, Landshamer made her
highly acclaimed debut as Pamina in Simon McBurney‘s celebrated new production
of Mozart’s Magic Flute at the Amsterdam Opera under Marc Albrecht. In 2014,
she was seen in Handel’s Rinaldo as Almirena in Glyndebourne. In 2015, she will
collaborate again with Christian Thielemann (Freischütz/Ännchen), this time at
the Semperoper in Dresden.
She is
particularly fond of singing lieder: a recital of duets with Maximilian Schmitt
at the Vienna Konzerthaus marks her first collaboration with Gerold Huber, with
whom she had several guest performances in 2013 with a number of recitals, such
as at the “Musik im Riesen” in the Essen Philharmonic and the Rheinvokal, with
lieder by Schumann, Ullmann and Brahms.
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Robin Blaze Photo Credit: Dorothea Heise |
Now
established in the front rank of interpreters of Purcell, Bach and Handel,
Robin Blaze's busy schedule has taken him to Europe, South America, North
America, Japan and Australia. He read music at Magdalen College, Oxford, and
won a post-graduate scholarship to the Royal College of Music where he trained
with assistance from the Countess of Munster Trust and is now a professor of
vocal studies.
He works
with most of the distinguished conductors in the early music field —
Christophers, Cleobury, Gardiner, Herreweghe, Hogwood, Jacobs, King, Koopman,
Kraemer, Leonhardt, McCreesh, McGegan, Mackerras, Pinnock and Suzuki. He has
visited festivals in Ambronay, Beaune, Boston, Edinburgh, Halle, Iceland,
Jerusalem, Innsbruck, Karlsruhe, Leipzig, Lucerne, Saintes and Utrecht. He
regularly appears with The Academy of Ancient Music, Bach Collegium Japan,
Collegium Vocale, The English Concert, The Gabrieli Consort, The King’s
Consort, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, RIAS Kammerchor and The
Sixteen. Other engagements have included the National Symphony Orchestra,
Washington, the St Paul Chamber Orchestra, La Chapelle Royale, City of London
Sinfonia, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Royal Flanders Philharmonic, BBC
Philharmonic, The Hallé Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Northern
Sinfonia, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Tafelmusik, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra,
the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic
Orchestra.
Blaze’s opera engagements have included Athamas
Semele at The Royal Opera House; Didymus Theodora for Glyndebourne Festival
Opera; Arsamenes Xerxes, Athamas Semele, Hamor Jephtha and Oberon A Midsummer
Night's Dream for English National Opera; Hamor Jephtha for Welsh National
Opera; Arcane in Handel’s Teseo at the Göttingen Handel Festival, and Bertarido
Rodelinda for Glyndebourne Touring Opera and at the Göttingen Handel Festival.
Blaze’s recent engagements include Handel’s
Belshazzar and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with the King’s Consort, Buxtehude’s
Membra Jesu with the Ricercar Consort, Handel’s Israel in Egypt with the
Academy of Ancient Music and the choir of King’s College Cambridge,
performances with Florilegium at Wigmore Hall, a recording of Hamor Jephtha
with The Sixteen on the Coro label, Barak Deborah with Laurence Cummings as
part of the London Handel Festival, Arcane Teseo with the Philharmonia Baroque
Orchestra and Nicholas McGegan, a recital as part of the Göttingen Handel
Festival, and a tour of Mexico with Bach Collegium Japan.
Highlights
this season and beyond include Bach’s St John Passion with the Academy of
Ancient Music and the choir of King’s College Cambridge, Bach’s Magnificat with
the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Didymus Theodora at the Göttingen Handel
Festival, Medoro Orlando with Welsh National Opera, Handel’s Messiah with the
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, a tour of Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and Blaze also continues his
collaboration with Bach Collegium Japan and Masaaki Suzuki.
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Paul Appleby Photo Credit: Dario Acosta |
Regarded
as one of the most accomplished artists of his generation, American tenor Paul
Appleby is a graduate of New York’s prestigious Juilliard School and of The
Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Program. Praised for the expressive and
interpretive depth of his performances, Appleby has earned his reputation as a
fine Mozartian through numerous productions of Così fan tutte, Die Zauberflöte
and Don Giovanni and, after highly acclaimed productions at both Oper Frankfurt
and The Met under James Levine, is considered a leading interpreter of
Stravinsky’s Tom Rakewell (The Rake’s Progress).
A regular
guest at The Met, Appleby has performed a diverse repertoire including Brian in
Nico Muhly’s Two Boys (praised by the New York Post as his “star-making
performance”), Chevalier de la Force in Poulenc’s Les dialogues des Carmélites
under Louis Langrée, Hylas in Berlioz’s Les Troyens under Fabio Luisi, and,
last season, David (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg) under James Levine. Other
notable highlights include Tamino (Die Zauberflöte) at Washington National
Opera, Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) at San Diego Opera, and his debut at
Glyndebourne Festival Opera as Jonathan in Barrie Kosky’s acclaimed production
of Handel’s Saul.
A
versatile artist, Appleby enjoys a buoyant concert career alongside his
operatic commitments and returns this season to the New York Philharmonic in
Handel’s Messiah as well as debuting with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under
Gustavo Dudamel in Mozart’s Requiem. Also this season, Appleby heads back to
The Met for a role debut as Belmonte (Die Entführung aus dem Serail) under
James Levine, makes his debut at San Francisco Opera as Tamino and returns to the
Glyndebourne Festival in Berlioz’ Béatrice et Bénédict under Robin Ticciati. In
recital and alongside Ken Noda, Paul Appleby sings in recital at Carnegie Hall
and as part of the Boston Celebrity Series, and makes a debut appearance at
London’s Wigmore Hall with Malcolm Martineau.
The
recipient of numerous awards and scholarships including the 2011 Richard Tucker
Career Grant and George London Foundation Award, Appleby is a passionate
advocate of art song, and has performed for the Marilyn Horne Foundation, and
at the Aspen Music and Caramoor Festivals with pianist Steven Blier. Paul
Appleby has also recorded works by Schubert and Britten as part of The
Juilliard Sessions Digital Debut series released by EMI Classics and appeared
in recital at New York’s Alice Tully Hall, Washington’s Kennedy Center and as
part of the New York Festival of Song.
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Paul Armin Edelmann Photo Credit: Nancy Horowitz |
Paul
Armin Edelmann's association with music began at an early age as the second son
of the internationally renowned singer Otto Edelmann. As a child, he was a
member and soloist of the famous Vienna Boys’ Choir. Later on he reinforced his
musical studies by studying voice with his father at the University of Music
and Performing Arts in Vienna. Shortly after completing his studies he became a
member of the Opera Theatre in Koblenz in Germany where he sang more than 30
roles.
In 1998,
Edelmann went freelance and moved back to Vienna. Since then he has sung at the
Vienna State Opera, the Vienna Volksoper, the Teatro Real Madrid, the Komische
Oper Berlin (Fürst Ottokar in Weber’s Der Freischütz), the Théâtre Royal de la
Monnaie in Brussels (Dottore Malatesta in Don Pasquale), the San Diego Opera
(Dr. Falke and Papageno), the New National Theatre in Tokyo, the Opéra de
Rouen, the Lincoln Center Festival in New York (Sciarrino’s Luci Mie
Traditrici), the state theatres in Darmstadt and Wiesbaden, and the opera
houses in Cologne, Frankfurt am Main, Leipzig, Dublin and the Israeli Opera in
Tel Aviv, as well as the Palau de les Arts Valencia, the San Sebastian Festival,
Hongkong Opera and the Center of the Performing Arts, Beijing.
More
recent performance venues have included the Opera National de Montpellier, the
Prinzregententheater München, the Deutsche Oper Düsseldorf and (in 2010) his
debut as Eisenstein in J. Strauss's Die Fledermaus at the Staatsoper Stuttgart.
He has also recently sung at the Teatro de la Maestranza Sevilla, Philharmonie
Berlin, Teatro Massimo Catania, Opera Montpellier, the Opera National du Rhin
Strasbourg, Bregenzer Festspiele, Victoria Hall Geneve, KKL Lucerne, Tonhalle
Zürich and the Winter Festival Sochi.
2014 saw
Edelmann´s debut at the Musikfest Hamburg, the Rheingau Music Festival, his
return to the Bregenzer Festspiele for Mozart's Zauberflöte and the release of
his Schumann-recital album with pianist Charles Spencer and a new recording of
Johann Strauss´ Die Fledermaus with Edelmann as Eisenstein. Both recordings on
the classic-label Capriccio. Projects for 2014-2015 season include Die
Fledermaus (in concert) with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Mozart’s
Requiem with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, a concert at the Kurt Weill
Festival in Dessau, Mahler’s Lied Von Der Erde with Opéra National de Paris and
a new production of Korngold´s Die tote Stadt at the Warsaw Opera.
Edelmann
has previously given concerts and recitals in many notable venues including the
Vienna Konzerthaus, the Vienna Musikverein, the Festival Hall in Salzburg, the
Brucknerhaus in Linz, the Salzburg Mozarteum, the Cologne Philharmonie, the
Philharmonie am Gasteig in Munich, the Konzerthaus Dortmund, the Philharmonie
Luxembourg, the Palau de la Música in Valencia, Tchaikovsky Conservatory in
Moscow, the Vatican in a concert honouring Pope John Paul II (Haydn’s The
Creation) in 1998 and again in 2006 with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
(Mozart's Coronation Mass).
Edelmann
has given recitals in Austria, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Belgium, Denmark,
the United States, Canada, China and Japan and has worked with such well-known
conductors as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Lorin Maazel, Michel Plasson, Ivor Bolton,
Paolo Carignani, Kazushi Ono, Miguel Gómez Martínez, Julia Jones, Ralf Weikert, Karel Mark Chichon,
Vladimir Fedosejew, Leopold Hager and Manfred Honeck.
Hailed as
one of the finest choruses in the country, the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh
(MCP) is proud of its long artistic partnership with the Pittsburgh Symphony
Orchestra and looks forward to another exciting season at Heinz Hall. Primarily
a volunteer chorus, the Mendelssohn Choir is composed of more than 100 singers
whose passion and commitment enables them to perform alongside the world’s
greatest musicians.
In
addition to its performances with the PSO, the Mendelssohn Choir produces its
own concerts in the community and operates the Junior Mendelssohn Choir of
Pittsburgh, the region’s premier young adult chorus. The Mendelssohn Choir
began its 2015-2016 season with an all-Duruflé concert on October 11 at East
Liberty Presbyterian Church, and bid farewell to Betsy Burleigh, MCP’s much
beloved music director. Burleigh is universally acknowledged for building upon
the legacy left by Music Director Emeritus Robert Page, and taking MCP to new
levels of excellence during her 10-year tenure with the Choir.
Under her
direction, MCP has earned high praise for its mastery of the great choral
classics. The Mendelssohn Choir is engaged currently in the search for its next
music director, who will be its seventh in its 108-year-old history. For the
remainder of the season, Maria Sensi Sellner will be acting music director and
will prepare the Choir for its forthcoming performances with the Pittsburgh
Symphony Orchestra.
As the
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s “chorus of choice,” the Mendelssohn Choir has
performed with some of the world’s foremost conductors including Lorin Maazel,
Mariss Jansons, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Michael Tilson Thomas, Claudio
Abbado, Mstislav Rostropovich, Leonard Slatkin, Charles Dutoit, André Previn,
Sir Neville Marriner, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Helmuth Rilling, Ingo Metzmacher,
Richard Hickox, Zdenek Mácal and Manfred Honeck. Performances of the Choir with
the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra are heard locally over WQED-FM (89.3) and
distributed nationally by PRI. Committed to fostering the choral art form, the
Mendelssohn Choir has numerous recordings, commissions and premieres to its
credit, including works by Ned Rorem, Nancy Galbraith and Derek Bermel. The
Choir’s most recent recording released in fall 2011 is Mahler’s Symphony No. 3
with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Children’s Festival Chorus of
Pittsburgh with Manfred Honeck conducting.